Thinking of Selling Your Boston Condo

November 25, 2013

Thinking of Selling Your Boston Condo

If you are thinking of selling your condo in Boston, I want to give you some items of value when thinking about selling your condo.

Condos in Boston have long been a part of the pathway to homeownership for many Bostonians seeking to purchase their first home. Condos in Boston usually provide the least expensive way to access a market that would be restricted otherwise. Condo markets have become the place where many single buyers and people looking to downsize from a larger homes migrate to.

In cities like Boston and other major metropolitan areas in the United States, you have high prices on single family homes coupled with rental market rates which are really high. When rents are high and prices are high it can be difficult to save enough money to close on your first place.

Condos just due to their additional complexity beyond a single family home particularly around compounded issues like other co-owners, rules and regulations and shared condo budgets other owners give cause for a need to have additonal layers of approval when a buyer is planning to purhcase a condo with a mortgage. The financing of condos is a little more complex than a single family home.

Your Condo Will Sell, But will the Sale be Approved?

If you are thinking of selling your condo in Boston, then you will want to make sure that the condo will be approved for financing. Most people don't realize that when a buyer is thinking about purchasing a condo, there is a two step approval process. The two steps are the approval of the actual buyer and their finance and the second step is the approval of the actual condo association and the property itself. This is more than the property just appraising out for the value the buyer is purchasing for. There is way more to it.

Benjamin Franklin on an Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure When Selling Your Boston Condo

If you are planning to sell your condo in Boston, it may be best to ask the questions of the condo board/association/trustees before hand. As an experienced realtor in Boston, I often get a condo questionnaire from a trusted lender. In this case, I pretty much always go to Thea Simolari of the Mortgage Network. I then ask for the condo questionnaire that would be issued by one of her morgtage investors. This condo questionnaire is then issued to the trustees of the condo. Then I take the completed questionnaire back to Thea and her dedicated condo underwriting team who can tell me if the condo will be approved or if there will be any stipulations.

If you are buying a condo in Boston, you will want to make sure that your Realtor is experienced enough to know how to spot if there is an issue with you being approved for a condo that you may want to look at. This will prevent you from wasting a lot of time.

You may want to download a generic condo questionnaire which would be used by a lender to approve the property for a sale. I am happy to supply you with a condo questionnaire so you can evaluate what kinds of thinks can impact the sale of your condo from a lending perspective.

The Kid in School Who Was Perpetually Late

You know the kids in school who were late all of the time. Whether it was for school or a social event they just could not seem to get their act together. Well, that kid now owns a condo in your condo complex. Guess what, the kid who does not pay his condo feees on time will have an adverse effect on your ability to sell your condo.

When a bank begins the underwriting process on a condo on behalf of a borrower who has your condo unit under agreement they will also want to flush out whether there are issues with the condo association. The delinquent condo fee payers can affect your ability to sell your unit. The bank sends a questionnaire to your condos trustees and they will be asked in wrinting if there are any units delinquent on their condo fees. If there are too many delinquent folks on their fees, the bank can deny the loan on your buyer because they may deem the risk too high.

What Can Your Condo Association Do if You Have People Delinquent on Their Condo Fees?

In Massahusetts under MGL chapter 183 (the section of the law relating to condos), there is a provision where the condo association can begin the foreclosure process on the condo. This was created in order to have leverage so that the value of other unit owners condos would not be underminded by people who choose not invest their money in silly things like monthly condo fees.

You will want to speak with a real estate about the process. There is a process to how you apply the pressure, you can't just slip notes under the door.

If I have not scared you yet, and you are considering selling your condo in Boston and you want some advice or an opinion, please feel free to give me a call at 617-615-9435 or send me an email. My email address is: mike@mmahoney.com